Manufacturing Execution System

What is a manufacturing execution system?

A manufacturing execution system (MES) or manufacturing information system (MIS) is a comprehensive and dynamic information system that automates manufacturing production controls and processes with network computing. MES solutions optimize production and ensure plant floor efficiency by tracking, documenting, and controlling the entire manufacturing process, from raw material sourcing to product delivery.

Organizations with global plants use manufacturing execution systems to synchronize manufacturing activities and optimize floor performance in real time. Manufacturing execution system (MES) software vendors bridge the gap between enterprise-side enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and tool-level process control systems.

Importance of MES

MES software helps manufacturers navigate complex challenges and improve processes with data analysis throughout the production lifecycle.

For example, an MES solution collects and analyzes real-time machine, process, and operations data to help manufacturers predict and optimize potential problems or malfunctions. Different industries, including aerospace and pharmaceutical, leverage MES software to comply with industry regulations and guidelines.

MES systems allow factory floor workers to do the right thing at the right time by capturing manufacturing environment activities and prescribing real-time improvements. Manufacturers also use MES platforms to assess industrial equipment usage, operator productivity, and material efficiency.

MES features

MES enable manufacturers to control production flow with minimal human intervention. Some of its essential features are:

• Collects data. MES automates shop floor data collection to increase efficiency and avoid manual errors. MES tools usually collect three types of data.

1. 1. Production data: Real-time material consumption, people, and process information
   2. Machine data: Industrial protocols for viewing machine status data and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) such as overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) and uptime
   3. In-process data: Critical process information derived from checklists, gage interfaces, barcode scanners, and radio-frequency identification (RFID) systems

• Manages labor. MES also helps organizations log staff work time, manage personnel qualifications, implement incentive programs, authorize personnel access, and manage issue escalations.
• Tracks products and parts. This MES feature is crucial for food and beverage industries as they track materials at every production stage. Product tracking involves part issuing, part kitting, work-in-progress (WIP) inventory tracking, recording part installation history, and tracking material shelf life.
• Controls manufacturing quality. MES empowers organizations to assess product quality and find points of failure with SPC, device history records (DHRs), engineering change notices (ECNs), process data processing (PDP), equipment inspection, and non-conformance management (NCM).
• Analyzes manufacturing efficiency to get as close as possible to the efficient point.
• Executes manufacturing processes and workflows by guiding technicians through execution sequence rules and work instructions.
• Integrates with other data storage and production systems to standardize data and follow industrial protocols.

MES functions

In 1997, the Manufacturing Enterprise Solutions Association International (MESA) created the MESA-11 model to help organizations run manufacturing systems efficiently. Despite the model's continuous evolution, these 11 core functions remain crucial for operations management.

1. Operations/detailed scheduling: Leverage finite capacity scheduling (FCS) to predict delivery constraints and optimize plant performance priorities.
2. Resource allocation and status: Track and analyze the real-time status of people, materials, machines, and tools to meet operational scheduling goals.
3. Production unit dispatching: Route real-time production data and prescribe schedule changes to calculate and adjust production dispatching.
4. Document control: Manage and distribute the accessible product, process, design, and order information to implement corrective actions.
5. Data collection and acquisition: Collect, organize, and track intra-operational production and parametric data to help organizations make informed decisions.
6. Labor management: Track operations personnels’ schedules, qualifications, authorizations, and work patterns to improve resource allocation and optimize quality management.
7. Quality management: Track statistical process control or statistical quality control (SPC/SQC) and analyze real-time manufacturing measurements to identify quality management problems, correlate symptoms, and find root cause.
8. Process management: Monitor the entire production process to gain insights into bottlenecks and support operators to improve in-process and inter-operational activities.
9. Maintenance management: Flag potential equipment issues for diagnosis and reduce downtime with maintenance schedules.
10. Product tracking and genealogy: Track unit progress, output batch history, product line visibility, and regulation compliance.
11. Performance analysis: Compare results to resource utilization or availability, schedule conformance, production unit cycle time, and overall performance goals to create accurate manufacturing operations reports for stakeholders.

MESA will launch a SMART Manufacturing model in 2022.

MES benefits

Organizations gain both short- and long-term benefits from MES’ ability to produce real-time insights, track data, and improve production efficiency. MES:

• Improves quality control by identifying potential points of failures and reduces waste, scrap, and rework
• Maximizes product flow and asset utilization by balancing production schedules and managing resources
• Reduces just-in-case and WIP inventory investments with up-to-date scrap and non-conforming inventory record
• Fuels real-time decision-making by integrating systems across a shop floor
• Boosts regulatory compliance by tracking manufacturing data throughout the production cycle

MES vs. ERP

MES helps manufacturers streamline shop floor operations, comply with regulations, enforce process requirements, manage resources, track product data, and analyze data for insights. Businesses adopting MES maximize production efficiency with data-driven insights on products, processes, people, and machines.

ERP software solutions help companies create production schedules, manage order processing, and track customer service activities. While an ERP system focuses more on scheduling processes and quantitative analysis, MES takes care of plant floor activities. ERP systems provide data for a period, whereas MES provides manufacturers with real-time data. ERP systems connect with other business software and MES with plant machines on the integration side.